


Spring Buds

by jeweniper



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Late Night Conversations, Season 6 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 05:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14948150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeweniper/pseuds/jeweniper
Summary: In the transition between life on the castleship and on Earth, Allura just wants a moment to herself to give the past a proper goodbye.Maybe the roots of the past are healthier than she thought.





	Spring Buds

**Author's Note:**

> I am STILL working on that klance fic, and I have an idea for a momojirou, but season 6 tossed my heart in the dryer on high without a dryer sheet and I was hurting something fierce, so here's my attempt at a conversation that needs/deserves to happen that dreamworks may or may not actually give us. Shoutout to my friend kelly for dying with me as we watched the season.
> 
> Shallura ain't dead y'all, we out here. Hope you enjoy this little fic!

It’s late when Allura steps onto one of three observation decks of the coalition ship they were using for their expedition to Earth. She doesn’t know how many vargas into the lunar cycle, of course, only that actually saying goodbye to the castleship felt like eons ago--not to mention several long and uncomfortable conversations back. Getting as close to the window as she can, she quickly looks for a chair and then gives up, sinking to the floor like a bag of rocks. The lighting of this room is a warm beige, which would surely be comforting if some cavity of her heart didn’t ache for the cool caress of turquoise. With a soft sigh, she unties her bun, allowing her hair to sweep in around her shoulders like the pa’frijjan blanket Coran had woven for her when she was very young. Honestly, she’s apprehensive about visiting the paladins’ planet and everything to come. Now more than ever she has to look ahead.

 

But at least for tonight, she’d like to digest everything she has lost.

 

The doors part with a whine and she turns to see Shiro on the other side, who starts at her presence. “Princess,” he falters, before stepping into the room. “Can’t sleep?”

 

She gives him a rueful smile and turns back to the wide window, idly looking for direction in the sea of black. “It’s been a long time since you’ve checked up on me.” It’s not an accusation so much as an observation. She pats the rough ground beside her. “Welcome back.”

 

When he finally approaches, he gives her plenty of space, folding his large body into a neat ball that should look uncomfortable for his muscular frame, but doesn’t. “It’s good to be back,” he begins, searching for paths of his own through the speckled expanse before continuing, “the others were filling me in on some things I wasn’t...totally myself for.” He looks at her, undeterred by the way she doesn’t meet his eye. “Allura, I am so sorry. That I wasn’t there for you.”

 

“Shiro, you don’t have to apologize. It wasn’t your fault!”

 

“I know, and I do. When you needed me most,” he glances back at the window, “when you and the team needed me most, I wasn’t there.”

 

For something to do, she draws a lazy pattern on the floor with her finger. This is the Shiro she remembers. And to have him truly back after...everything is frustrating. Her tone is a bit sharper than she intends when she responds, “well, we managed.”

 

He chuckles, forgiving her tone. “That was never in question.”

 

“Why? Because I am my father’s daughter?”

 

“What? No. Because you’re the most capable person I’ve ever met. Regardless of anything.”

 

She halts her pattern and blushes slightly. Lotor had always praised her in relation to her heritage, which she was too blind to notice at the time, so she was no longer used to this kind of compliment. He pushes forward, oblivious to her reaction, with a more guarded tone. “I think if I had been around, I could have helped avoid certain...developments.” Now it’s his turn to avoid meeting her eye. “But who knows.”

 

She scoots just a smidgen closer, with the hint of a smile peeking from the sheet of her locks. Once again, she’s reminded that she isn’t the only one who has suffered. After a pause she offers, “I’m a little biased, but I think the white hair suits you.”

 

“Oh thank god, because I was a little worried I looked a bit too much like my grandpa.”

 

“Shiro! There isn’t a grandfatherly thing about you.”

 

He grins, “even if I only ever want to be a paladin? Because according to Lance ‘not trying anything new’ is ‘flinging yourself into the pit of grandpa-hood’ and is ‘totally un-lit’. Whatever that means.” They laugh quietly, angled more towards each other and less the window before them.

 

For the first time in ages, she feels truly comfortable. “What’s something you’re looking forward to about going back home?” She asks, if only to keep the conversation going.

 

He hums, studying her out of the corner of his eye, lip quirked in response to some positive thought. “In our country, each state has a flower chosen to represent it. We’ve got something called the Texas Bluebonnet, and if I’m right they’ll be cropping up like Arusian blatweeds this time of year. It’s not the same as Altean fauna I’m sure, but I think you’ll like them. I want to show them to you, if you don’t mind.”

 

She looks down at their hands, resting close on the floor but with a small gap about the size of a floor tile between them. That’s the perfect amount of space, for now. But who knows about the future. As opposed to how she felt when first boarding this ship, she might be optimistic, about everything. “I think I would like that.”


End file.
